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affiance. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
affiance, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
affiance in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle French affiance, from affier (from Medieval Latin affīdāre, from *fīdāre, from Latin fīdere) + -ance.
Pronunciation
Verb
affiance (third-person singular simple present affiances, present participle affiancing, simple past and past participle affianced)
- (transitive) To be betrothed to; to promise to marry.
1935 April, William Faulkner, “Skirmish at Sartoris”, in The Unvanquished, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1938, →OCLC; republished in The Unvanquished: The Corrected Text, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, October 1991, →ISBN, section 1, page 189:[S]he had expected the worst ever since Drusilla had deliberately tried to unsex herself by refusing to feel any natural grief at the death in battle not only of her affianced husband but of her own father [...]
Derived terms
Translations
See also
Noun
affiance (plural affiances)
- Faith, trust.
1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XXI, Chapter ii, leaf 421r:[…] in syr Launcelot & you I moost had my Ioye / & myn affyaunce / & now haue I lost my Ioye of you bothe […]
[…] "in Sir Launcelot and you I most had my joy, and mine affiance, and now have I lost my joy of you both" […]
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:All other outward shewes and exterior apparences are common to all religions: As hope, affiance [translating confiance], events, ceremonies, penitence and martyrdome.
1849, James Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography:Such feelings promptly yielded to his habitual affiance in the divine love.
1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., , →OCLC, page 218:Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have / Most joy and most affiance, […]
- (archaic) A solemn engagement, especially a pledge of marriage.
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French afiance, from afier (“to promise”) + -ance.
Noun
affiance f (plural affiances)
- promise (verbal guarantee)
Descendants
References
- affiance on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)